Dils
Vanhoose
PARKERSBURG - A Wood County attorney's mantra in not taking no for an answer in helping clients obtain disability benefits also extends to those clients who don't pay for the work she's done.
Jan Dils, and one of her associates filed two breach of contract suits in Wood Circuit Court on May 14. In both suits, Dils and Vanhoose allege two former clients have not paid them for helping them get benefits denied by the Veteran's Administration.
Dils and Heather Vanhoose filed suits against John Doak and Gregory Scott Lang II. No other information in court records is provided about Doak and Lang except that they signed contingency fee agreements with Dils and Vanhoose on Aug. 22 and July 25, 2008, respectively.
According to their agreements, Doak and Lang were to pay Dils and Vanhoose 20 percent, plus costs and expenses, of any past due benefits denied them by the VA. In both suits, Dils and Vanhoose allege they represented Doak and Lang "as agreed, and [he] was subsequently awarded both past and future benefits."
No information is provided as to when the U.S. Court of Veteran's Appeals awarded Doak and Lang their benefits or what measures Dils and Vanhoose took to get their fee and expenses before filing their lawsuits.
Along with interest in both cases, Dils and Vanhoose seek judgment against Doak for $27,078.65, including $500 in expenses, and against Lang for $20,450, including $450 in expenses. They are represented by Parkersburg attorney George Y. Chandler.
The cases are respectively assigned to judges J.D. Beane and Jeffrey B. Reed.
Dils, a Parkersburg attorney who also has offices in Charleston, Logan and Beckley, specializes in personal injury, and disability benefits cases. Her television and radio commercials tout her as being an attorney who "won't take 'no' for an answer."
According to the Web site for Dils' firm, Vanhoose has been an associate since 2007.
Wood Circuit Court case numbers 10-C-191 (Doak) and 192 (Lang)